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Quinn Emanuel turns to RPC competition head to boost City practice

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has appointed RPC’s head of competition, Lambros Kilaniotis, to boost its City antitrust offering.

Kilaniotis, who has been with RPC since 2013, is a solicitor-advocate with a dual contentious and non-contentious competition practice. On the disputes side, Kilaniotis has represented claimants on competition damages claims relating to the interchange fees cartel and acted for Google in its defence of consumer collective opt-out proceedings in the Competition Appeals Tribunal.

He will co-head Quinn Emanuel’s UK competition practice alongside partner Kate Vernon, who said of his arrival: ‘Lambros is an outstanding lawyer with the technical and tactical skills required to win the most demanding cases. We are building a compelling competition litigation brand here in London and Lambros will be integral to that process.’

Richard East, senior partner at Quinn’s London office, added: ‘Lambros is a great addition to our existing competition practice, which has gone from strength to strength this year. He has an impressive track record for both winning complex competition disputes and achieving very favourable out-of-court settlements. As a higher-rights advocate, he has the legal and technical skills our clients demand and we are sure he will flourish at Quinn Emanuel.’

Kilaniotis becomes the second partner brought in by Quinn following exits of high-profile competition litigation partners Boris Bronfentrinker, Elaine Whiteford and Nicola Chesaites. The trio, as well as a team of eight associates, joined Willkie Farr’s London office last year.

It was a case of one in, one out for Quinn as partner Ravi Nayer departed for Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) earlier this week. Nayer, who left Quinn after just over a year, has created joint defence and novel litigation co-operation agreements in some of the UK’s largest class actions, including the RBS rights issue litigation.

tom.baker@legalbusiness.co.uk